Who says kids today are a disappointing bunch of soft, overly-entitled, delicate snowflakes? Well, maybe some of them are. But they grow ’em tougher in Wisconsin.
Matthew Schoenecker likes guns and T-shirts showing guns. But when the freshman wears the latter to Markesan High School, he is told to change, cover them, or spend the day in an isolated cubicle.
So he’s exercising some other rights to defend what he calls his First Amendment right to support the Second Amendment — he sued the principal in federal court.
There’s no better way to study civics and the glories of our vaunted judicial system that by getting up close and personal, right?
The suit, filed Monday in Milwaukee, names principal John Koopman as the sole defendant. It claims Koopman violated Schoenecker’s freedom of expression by restricting him from wearing shirts that depict guns and other weapons in “a non-violent, non-threatening manner,”
And there’s this:
The suit also contends that Koopman’s personal, case-by-case determination of which shirts are “inappropriate” violates Schoenecker’s rights to due process.
In other words, Koopman’s standards for what flies and what doesn’t in the halls of Markesan High are subjective, arbitrary and capriciously enforced. A judge just might take a dim view of that.
While there are no explicit school rules against T-shirts featuring guns, at a meeting last month with Schoenecker and his parents, Koopman explained that he has discretion to restrict clothing at school he deems inappropriate.
Again, good luck with that. Would Mr. Koopman corral a young skull full of mush who shows up for first period French wearing a Moms Demand Action t-shirt?
We’re not attorneys (and actively avoid them at all costs) so who knows if young Master Schoenecker’s suit has a snowball’s chance in hell of going anywhere? But if he were to put up a GoFundMe page to cover his legal expenses, we’d happily toss a Jackson his way.